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I bought a second hand laptop last week, but after a couple of days I started getting error messages when I start up the computer. It's a blue screen. The first time it had the following message:

"Checking file system on C:The type of the file system is FAT32One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency"

Now every time I start up the computer I have the same blue screen and it runs a couple of checks. I let it run all the way yesterday and it took 3(!) hours. It gave me the following messages:

"Windows replaced bad clusters in file \PAGEFILE.SYS of name (null)."

Running the checks does not seem to make a difference. I get the blue screen every time I switch the computer on, the computer is slow and I currently only use it for Internet and when I use IE it often freezes.

What should I do? Any advice would be much appreciated. I really hope this is something that can be fixed.

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Right click on the C drive in Explorer and go Properties > Tools > Check Now (under Error Checking). Check both boxes then click "Start Now". A message will pop up saying that Error Checking will run after you restart the computer. Restart the computer and Error Checking will run automatically after the restart. After itís finished it will restart into Windows automatically.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.

Since the error occurred in your pagefile, I'd suggest recreating your pagefile to get rid of that error for good. To do this:

a ) Go to Start...Run...and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter.-Then click on the Advanced tab,-then on the Performance Settings Button,-then on the next Advanced tab,-then on the Virtual Memory Change button.b ) In this window, note down the current settings for your pagefile (so you can restore them later on).-Then click on the "No paging file" radio button, and- then on the "Set" button. Be sure, if you have multiple hard drives, that you ensure that the paging file is set to 0 on all of them.-Click OK to exit the dialogs.c ) Reboot (this will remove the pagefile from your system)d ) Then go back in following the directions in step a ) and re-enter the settings that you wrote down in step b ). Follow the steps all the way through (and including) the reboot.e ) Once you've rebooted this second time, go back in and check to make sure that the settings are as they're supposed to be.

In the event that these steps don't fix the disk check, then I'd have to suggest formatting your hard drive - as this is the only way that I know to reset the "dirty" bit (which is what kicks off the disk check).

* The Error Checking causes a second error check at start up after the first one, but does not give any new info.

* I tried recreating the pagefile, which worked during one re-start.

At the moment, I still get the Error Check at start up. The message it gives is:
"Windows replaced bad clusters in file \blabla\Temporary Internet Files \blabla." and it gives a whole list of similar lines.

Any idea how I can fix that?

Also, the laptop gets very very warm on one side at the bottom. Should I worry about that?